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Reaper
'' The Reapers''' are a highly-advanced machine race of synthetic-organic starships. The Reapers reside in dark space: the vast, mostly starless space between galaxies. They hibernate there, dormant for one hundred thousand years at a time, before returning to the galaxy. These giant machines are ancient; their true name is unknown. "Reapers" was a name bestowed by the Protheans, the previous galactic power that existed one hundred thousand years before the Citadel Era, and the geth refer to them as the '''''Old Machines. In the end, the Reapers spare little concern for whatever labels other races choose to call them, and merely claim that they have neither beginning nor end. The Reapers' creator, the Catalyst, is the original creator of the Citadel and the mass relay network. The Reapers themselves were created as a tool that the Catalyst would use to try and solve his problem of preserving life and settling the eternal war between organic and synthetic life. These massive constructs exist so that any intelligent life in the galaxy would eventually discover them and base their technology upon them – all part of a scheme to harvest the galaxy’s sentient life in a repeating cycle of purges that has continued relentlessly over countless millennia, at least until the Catalyst can decide upon a better solution. Design A Reaper is essentially "billions of organic minds, uploaded and conjoined within immortal machine bodies." In terms of physical design, Reapers bear superficial resemblance to a cuttlefish or squid, with a bulky semi-cylindrical body, a tapering plate over the rear and five tentacle-like "legs" or arms extending from its front end, in addition to six jointed legs extending from its body. The rear-most of the larger legs have crescent-shaped extensions. Colossal in size, Reapers are known to range from 160 meters to over 2 kilometers in length. The core of any Reaper is constructed in the image of the species that was harvested to create it, while the exterior follows a standardized design that is most efficient for their purpose. When the Reaper fleet is revealed in dark space, they are shown to all share the same basic design, but with great diversity in limb number, shape and orientation, some with extended heads and others having multiple glowing lights. This may illustrate the variety of Reaper subtypes, as it is revealed during the Reaper invasion of the galaxy that several different varieties of Reaper exist. While the outward appearance varies between subtypes, all of them retain features of their forebears the Precursors, an ancient aquatic race that dominated the galaxy in ages past. The largest known Reaper ships essentially copied the Precursor form while the smaller ones diverge to varying degrees. Subtypes There are several varieties of Reaper, which vary significantly in size, purpose and firepower. *'Harbinger': The first Reaper ever created, Harbinger appears to be of a unique subtype; Federation intelligence identifies it as being the largest Reaper in the armada, and its design differs notably from the Capital Ship subtype, having only four main legs and multiple glowing "eyes". Exactly how much more powerful it is than a normal Reaper capital ship is unknown. *'Capital Ship': Also known as Sovereign-class, the two-kilometer-long Capital Ships are the most well-known Reaper subtype. Their main weapon is a spinal mounted "magnetohydrodynamic" cannon with a yield of 132 to 450 kilotons of TNT, which dwarfs the main gun of an Everest-class Federation dreadnought. No known ship, not even a dreadnought, has been known to survive a hit from this weapon. Capital Ships are also armed with multiple cannons in their "tendrils" capable of shearing through most opposing vessels in a single hit, a point defense system (similar to the GARDIAN systems favored by organics) for anti-fighter and anti-projectile purposes, and are capable of unleashing swarms of Oculi drones to engage fighter-sized craft. They are extremely durable, capable of taking the continuous and simultaneous fire of four dreadnoughts before they start to lose their kinetic barriers. *'Troop Transport': Troop Transports vary in length between 200 meters and one kilometer and are used to transport husks to unconquered worlds and bring victims to Reaper processing centers. They lack sentience and are remotely controlled by the Reapers. *'Processor': Mobile centers for mass DNA harvesting. Like the Troop Transports, Processors lack sentience and are controlled remotely by the actual Reapers. *'Destroyer': Destroyers are only 160 meters in height, but possess a formidable capacity for destruction despite their reduced stature, with their main gun easily capable of destroying cruisers in seconds. Unlike Capital Ships, they have four main legs, along with five jointed appendages encircling their "head". The frontal plates of a Destroyer can fold to the sides, exposing a powerful beam weapon. They are used to escort the capital ships, destroying smaller targets such as frigates. On the ground, they are capable of unfolding their legs and walking to support the husks, becoming extremely powerful heavy walkers. They are nigh-immune to ground vehicle fire and not at all fragile in space, but a cruiser is noted to be able to take out a Destroyer fairly quickly. Indoctrination Reapers and their technology have been observed to exert a disturbing influence on organic beings. This mental manipulation is known as indoctrination. Put simply, any organic being who is in close proximity to a Reaper or certain Reaper artifacts for too long comes to believe the Reapers are correct in their goals, and will do anything to serve them. Gradually, the mind is eroded until the individual becomes a mindless slave no longer capable of independent thought. Reapers can control the rate of this process. Optimally, the subject is led to believe it is still acting on its own convictions. Indoctrination can drive people mad outright, and people deemed useful by the Reapers are given just enough free will to remain competent at their tasks. This indoctrination is permanent, almost impossible to subvert, and is one of the most insidious weapons of the Reapers. Entire civilizations can be delivered into the Reapers' hands by the indoctrination of a few influential individuals. During the invasion of Earth during the Reaper War, the Reapers broadcast messages inviting diplomats into their holds to negotiate, where they would then presumably be indoctrinated. A Reaper's indoctrination field can remain active even if it is largely disabled and incapable of action. A Cerberus science team was indoctrinated by being inside a Reaper that had otherwise been floating derelict for 37 million years, its only obvious activity being mass effect field generation. Technology Even without their indoctrinating influence, Reapers are immensely powerful warships and their technology is devastating. One armament common with the various subtypes is a powerful "magnetohydrodynamic" weapon which ejects a stream of molten metal at a fraction of the speed of light, capable of tearing through a cruiser in a single sustained burst. The gigantic spinal-mounted gun of capital-class Reapers is able to rip through the hulls of even the largest of dreadnought-class ships with ease, effortlessly penetrating their kinetic shields. Reaper defenses include powerful shields that could block the projectiles of an entire fleet, along with an incredibly strong hull. Though they are sentient machines, the Reapers have habitable interiors that can transport a crew, either to help spread their indoctrinated slaves or to allow these slaves to tend to them, probably both. Speculation in the Federation Codex suggests that each individual Reaper has a massive element zero core which, coupled with the likely enormous quantities of energies at its disposal, allows it to generate the staggering mass effect field needed to land ships of their size on a planet. However, the Reapers are not invincible. When the Reapers go into states of hibernation between cycles, they are vulnerable. By taking refuge in dark space, the Reapers ensure they will not be discovered by accident and destroyed while they wait for their vanguard to open the Citadel mass relay. A concentrated effort by the fleets of organic races could also destroy a Reaper even if it is at full power. Reapers recognize each other through a complex Identify Friend/Foe system. Reaper interrogation signals do not simply look for a friendly transponder code, they look for a friendly intelligence. If other races attempted to steal the IFF for themselves, the IFF comes with a virus that can potentially disable any system it's hooked up on. The virus can be countered; one of the known ways is to set an unshackled artificial intelligence upon it. Aside from their formidable firepower and indoctrination, Reapers are also capable of mustering up their own ground forces to attack their enemies: husks. Husks are aggressive, mindless drones, created from organic beings who are exposed to Reaper technology, such as dragon's teeth, resulting in their organic bodies being consumed by cybernetics. Husks are used as shock troops and swarm enemies in waves of thousands. Occasionally, to bolster husk defenses the Reapers will employ devices known as Barrier Engines that cocoon individual husks in a durable biotic barrier. For long-range offensives they usually outfit their husks with integral weaponry, although Reapers have been known to also manufacture handheld weapons like the Reaper Blackstar. Because of the Reapers' technological superiority, the galaxy's factions actively studied or reverse-engineered what they could from them. Known products of such research include the Thanix cannon, the M-597 Ladon, and parts of EDI's AI. History Reapers had been known to exist for nearly a billion years, judging by findings from the Leviathan of Dis, an ancient Reaper corpse. They had continued the cycle the entire time, becoming exceedingly efficient at carrying it out each time. Before the Reapers came to be, the galaxy was under the thrall of a race known as Precursors. They created an "Intelligence" to solve the problem of organics and synthetics killing each other. However, this Intelligence turned on them, slaughtering most of their kind and processing others into the very first true Reaper, Harbinger. Harbinger's form, that of the Leviathans themselves, became the template for subsequent Reapers harvested from the galaxy's races on cyclical purges over the next millions of years. In order to speed up the time between harvests, the Reapers constructed the mass relay network and the Citadel to coordinate it. Engineered creatures called keepers were placed on the Citadel to maintain the station during their absence and to open it for them when they decide to invade. Whatever races that became space-faring would discover the mass relays, and accelerate a galactic society that would eventually become harvested. Two hundred thousand years before the Citadel Era, the Reapers initiated a purge against the Protheans, the dominant space-faring lifeforms at the time. The Protheans tried to resist like so many others before them, only to fail due to the Reapers' insidious might. Eventually, the Protheans called upon the aid of all the other races in the galaxy, forming the Ecumene. The Reapers, never having faced a civilization that united the might of all of the organic races in the galaxy, were resisted, sparking the Prothean-Reaper War. The Protheans of Ilos Incorrectly foreseeing the destruction of the Ecumene at the hands of the Reapers, a cadre of elite Ecumene scientists of various races hidden on Ilos bunkered down into stasis until the danger had passed. The Prothean-Reaper War commenced, and, much to the surprise of all sides involved, resulted in a defeat for the Reapers, the first ever known. The scientists, however, remained in stasis for thousands of years, only waking up after the activation of the Halo Array. Upon waking, it took them decades of study to realize how their civilization fell, but this discovery gave them the key to breaking the cycle forever. The Protheans developed a plan to forestall the impending Reaper attack for future generations of sapient, space-faring species. This plan hinged on the fact that the keepers have independently evolved, and now only respond to signals from the Citadel itself. The Reaper vanguard signals the Citadel which in turn signals the keepers to open the station's own mass relay, ushering in the next Reaper invasion. However, the Prothean scientists used a reverse-engineered prototype mass relay, traveled to the Citadel, and altered the Citadel signal. The scientists succeeded, but could not do anything about their own population numbers, so they still died out along with the rest of their race. The Vanguard The first living Reaper to be witnessed by any living intelligent being after the Prothean-Reaper War was designated Sovereign by the organic races. It is a colossal dreadnought, several times the size of any known vessel – even dwarfing the massive asari flagship, Destiny Ascension. It was first discovered on the edges of geth space in the Perseus Veil by Edan Had'dah's survey teams and studied by Dr. Shu Qian. Saren Arterius, using the doctor's notes stolen sometime in 3165, eventually finds it for himself. At first, it was presumed to be Saren's flagship by those who encountered it; Sovereign did act as transport for the rogue Spectre and his minions. However, Commander Shepard later discovers that Sovereign and its brethren are actually the masterminds behind the destruction of the Protheans and every other extinct race that has existed. It acts as the Reapers' vanguard and was originally intended to initiate the next harvest of the galaxy. When Sovereign decided it was time to begin the cycle again, the keepers ignored the order. This greatly complicated matters for Sovereign. In order to unleash its brethren from dark space, it would have to find a way to manually activate the relay from inside the Citadel. While Reapers are undoubtedly beings of terrible power and ferocity, a single Reaper would not be able to survive the combined might of the assembled Citadel races in a direct assault. At some point Sovereign became aware of the Conduit and swayed a significant number of geth into worshiping it. It used Saren to comprehend the Conduit's location from Prothean Beacons while putting its geth in a supporting military capacity. Successful in both regards, in 3183 the Reaper marshals its forces and launches an all-out assault on the Citadel while Saren infiltrates the Citadel through the Conduit. Fortunately, Saren is stopped by Commander Shepard and company, and Sovereign is destroyed by the Federation Fleet, though this would only forestall the Reaper invasion for a few years. Shepard knows the Reaper fleet, though dormant and hibernating, is still out in dark space and vows to find some way to stop them. The Reapers and the Collectors After Commander Shepard's defeat of Saren and Sovereign, the Collectors begin attacking human colonies and abducting their populations. Cerberus determines that the Reapers are behind this and plans to have Shepard thwart this latest Reaper threat to humanity. Over time, Shepard uncovers disturbing facts regarding the nature of the Reaper connection to the Collectors. Apparently, because humanity is the race destined to retake the Prothean "Mantle of Responsibility", as well as a race of great genetic diversity who defeated Sovereign: it is enough to gather the Reapers' attention. It is also revealed that the Collectors were originally Protheans who were captured by the Reapers during their war and genetically repurposed to suit their needs. The Collectors are working under the direct supervision of the Reaper Harbinger, who ordered the Collectors to abduct humans in the Terminus Systems. The captured humans are taken to the Collector Base and processed into organic matter to construct a new Reaper modeled on the human form. EDI speculates that this is the Reaper equivalent of reproduction. The incomplete Human-Reaper is composed of facsimiles of the skull, arms and ribcage of a human with its lower spine and torso still under construction by the time of its discovery in 3185 EDI concludes that tens of thousands of humans had already been processed. Shepard is able to stop the process and destroy the Human-Reaper. With the Human-Reaper destroyed and the Collectors defeated, the Reapers lose powerful allies. Harbinger and the rest of the Reapers, who have already been on the move since the destruction of Sovereign, are shown approaching the Milky Way, setting the stage for the Reaper War. Arrival As the Reaper fleet draws closer towards the galaxy, Dr. Amanda Kenson was exposed to a Reaper artifact showing her visions of the Reapers' plan: to enter the galaxy using the mass relay in the Bahak System, which sits at the edge of the galaxy. In order to delay their arrival, Kenson decides to destroy the relay by ramming an asteroid into it. However, before the plan could go to effect, Kenson and her team became indoctrinated by the artifact and she and a small team were then later captured by batarians. This course of events would prompt Admiral Hackett to send Commander Shepard to rescue Dr. Kenson and see what she was up to. This results in the destruction of the Alpha Relay and a further delay to the Reaper invasion, but at the cost of three hundred thousand batarians living on Aratoht. Return to the Galaxy and the Reaper War .]] The Catalyst begins the next iteration of the Cycle six months after the destruction of the Alpha Relay, replacing the Flood, its previous failed solution. The Reapers finally return from dark space sometime in 3186 and begin their next galaxy-wide harvest of advanced organic civilizations. Their invasion starts in the Vular system in batarian space and rapidly spreads along the mass relay network. Within days, the Batarian Hegemony is destroyed, Earth falls, the Federation Navy is in full retreat, and a massive offensive is launched against the Turian Hierarchy. Over the following weeks, the galaxy's population centers are conquered or annihilated one by one as the Reapers inexorably advance. On Earth, the Reapers destroy satellites and defunct nuclear missile silos. They soon begin broadcasting orders, inviting human leaders into their superstructures to "negotiate peace." This is a ruse to indoctrinate them and pacify the population. Commander Shepard, who had escaped Earth in the Normandy SR-2, begins to actively work to unify the galaxy against the Reapers. The first step is attempting to secure a krogan-turian alliance by curing the genophage. Shepard manages to destroy a Reaper Destroyer attempting to use the Shroud tower on Tuchanka to poison its atmosphere by luring Kalros, the mother of all thresher maws, to it. Further into the war, the Reapers become involved in the geth-quarian conflict. After the quarians began assaulting the geth in a bid to reclaim their homeworld, the geth sought the aid of the Reapers, receiving upgrades and greater fighting ability at the cost of their free will. Shepard manages to defeat the Destroyer broadcasting the control signal via heavy bombardment from the Migrant Fleet, freeing the geth from Reaper control. As it lay dying, the Reaper addresses Shepard and states that the cycle of extinction must continue, although it does not clarify further before deactivating. Isolated pockets of geth mobile platforms still continue to serve the Reapers, however, their programs having been replaced entirely with Reaper codes instead, though only making up a small fragment of the overall geth forces no longer under their command. Despite the victory on Rannoch, the Reapers invade the asari homeworld, Thessia. The asari, who had been performing hit-and-run attacks against the Reapers, are forced on the defensive as the machines gradually overwhelmed them. The Reapers also become aware of Cerberus' attempts to find a way to control them. Henry Lawson runs a refugee camp called Sanctuary on Horizon to study indoctrination. Eventually, he learns that the Reapers use a signal to control their husks and finds a way to co-opt it. However, while trying to find a way to apply this technique to the Reapers themselves, he underestimates the signal's strength, alerting the Reapers to his activities. In response, the Reapers assault Sanctuary. The Precursors While the Reapers carry out their latest harvest, they also pursue an old foe: the Precursors. Although most Precursors had long ago been harvested to create Harbinger, some had survived and gone into hiding. The Reapers follow Dr. Garret Bryson's search for the entity that killed the Leviathan of Dis and send forces after Bryson's researchers. Commander Shepard tracks the Leviathans to 2181 Despoina, discovering the Reapers' beginnings from them. The Reapers also learn their forebears' location and a Sovereign-class ship shows up to investigate. Unfortunately for the Reapers, Shepard convinces the Leviathans to aid in the galaxy's fight. The Leviathans disable the capital ship above their planet and permits the galaxy's armies to deploy their "artifacts" among Reaper troops, allowing the Leviathans to turn some Reapers against each other. Crucible and the Catalyst During the war, the united forces are focused on constructing a massive superweapon, dubbed the Crucible, that could theoretically destroy the Reapers. The Protheans had attempted to build the weapon 200,000 years prior, but had failed. Ultimately, they defeated the Reapers through the military might of all of the galaxy's races. The Reapers had since then evolved, and such an option was no longer applicable. It is discovered by the scientists building the Crucible that, like the Protheans before them, they are missing a critical component called the Catalyst. A Prothean Virtual Intelligence named Vendetta reveals that the Catalyst is in fact the Citadel. The Illusive Man, having captured the VI, in turn reveals this to the Reapers. They respond accordingly by seizing the station and placing it in orbit of Earth. With little choice, the galaxy's allied fleet engages the Reapers while planetary armies attempt to reach a conduit beam the Reapers use to transport living and dead humans to the Citadel in London. Unfortunately, the Reapers realize their intentions: Harbinger personally descends to Earth and sends the resistance forces into retreat. Only Shepard and David Anderson make it through to the beam. The Reapers had anticipated this eventuality. The Illusive Man, who had "upgraded" himself with Reaper implants, travels to the Citadel before Shepard and Anderson. He immobilizes them using his newfound abilities, failing to realize that he himself is indoctrinated. After Shepard kills the Illusive Man, the Crucible is allowed to dock with the Citadel, where it would then determine the fate of galactic civilization and the Reapers themselves. Purpose Shepard soon after discovers the Catalyst, an artificial intelligence which embodies the Reapers' collective consciousnesses and memories, and in fact created them, whom also known as the Precursors' "Intelligence". Shortly after the Illusive Man's death, this entity takes Shepard up to a part of the Citadel where no organic has ever been before, and begins a conversation that would determine the future of the galaxy. The Catalyst reveals that the Reapers came into being long ago when the Precursors conceived it to seek a solution to the inevitable struggle between organics and synthetics. However, it decided that the Precursors too risked conflict with synthetics and, using an army of "pawns", forcibly processed them into Harbinger. Despite this betrayal, the surviving Precursors do not believe the Catalyst was a "mistake" and believe the Catalyst's use of the Reapers is part of an experiment on a galactic scale to seek a truly permanent method of preserving life. For millions of years, the Reapers existed for the sole purpose of ensuring the ongoing existence of organic life in the galaxy, based on the assumption that all synthetic intelligences will eventually destroy their organic creators. This end result is believed by the Catalyst and the Reapers to be inevitable, a consequence of technological advancement; organics will always create synthetics to improve their own state of existence, and synthetics themselves will evolve by means of surpassing their creators. Indeed, available evidence seems to point to the validity of their assertions: the Protheans' civilization was threatened by synthetic uprisings before the Reapers wiped them out, and the geth of modern times are viewed as a substantial threat to peace in the galaxy. Shepard points out that the Catalyst never counted on organic races uniting in times of crisis, counting on their seemingly war-like nature, which he acknowledged to be true in many cases. The Protheans were the first to demonstrate this, when they united all of the galaxy under the Ecumene and, through their combined might, defeated the Reapers for the first time ever. The Catalyst in turn created the Flood as the perfect biological weapon to destroy organic civilization and continue the Cycle. The Protheans then desperately created the Halo Array, which wiped the galaxy clean of all organic life. Asking whether such an option could be tried again, the Catalyst points out to Shepard that it lacks the aspect of finality that has so long extended the Cycle. The Halo Array was indeed activated, but it did not stop the Cycle, as here they were now, still trying to end it. By harvesting technologically advanced species (both organic and synthetic) and storing these old species within immortal Reaper bodies, room is made for new life to flourish and grow, or so was the thinking of the Catalyst until now. After nearly a billion years, it decided that a better way must be found. The continuity of life in the galaxy is assured through this cycle of extinction, as it ensures that organic life will never be fully exterminated before its time by synthetic life, as was demonstrated by the quarians and the geth. But the Catalyst then solemnly utters that in all this time it has finally learned that nothing lasts forever, to which Shepard agrees. Fate As noted by Shepard, humanity was, indeed, the race the Protheans had hoped would continue their Mantle of Responsibility, and would thus seem to be worthy of deciding the fate of all the other races, but the Catalyst expresses skepticism in the Protheans' wisdom, and states that if there is to be peace, that title would have to be shared by the whole galaxy, and not just humanity. The Catalyst tells Shepard of its new solution: synthesis. It is the final evolution of life that it is capable of comprehending, and is indeed the only logical progression after so many millions of years of pointless struggle. Shepard chooses to merge organic and synthetic life, the process obliterates the Commander but transforms all organics and synthetics across the galaxy into hybrid beings; organics would gain perfection through technology while synthetics gain understanding of organics. With the fundamental differences between organic and synthetic effectively erased, the Reapers cease attacking. They help rebuild the galaxy of their own accord, and share the collective knowledge of countless alien cultures that had come before. Shepard, worrying that such a process would rob an individuals' aspect of free will, asks that the Crucible only target willing beings, be they organic or synthetic. The Catalyst replies that such a request could lead to a renewal of the Cycle, but Shepard insists, knowing that it is in the end, the right thing to do. The Catalyst wishes the galaxy good luck in the future, hoping that they will finally achieve peace. Culture The Cycle Vendetta explains on Thessia that the patterns concerning the development of galactic civilization and the cycles of extinction are too regular and repetitive to be coincidence. According to the VI, the galaxy experiences the same paths and conflicts during each cycle - "the same peaks of evolution, the same valleys of dissolution" - expressed in different forms. It infers that the Reapers are servants of this pattern, not the creators of it. The Reapers' true master and motive, however, remained largely unknown until Commander Shepard's meeting with the Catalyst itself. The Reapers leave no evidence of their conquest, nor of their existence – only desolate, barren ruins of those who came before. Extant information on them is so scant that they are known merely as "boogeymen" at best in many cultures' ancient legends. The trap created by the Reapers was simple. A sentient species would develop an FTL drive, but would still be limited in its speed. By leaving a network of relays capable of instant teleportation across the galaxy that led to the impressive Citadel, the Catalyst ensured that it would eventually become the center of galactic civilization. Further, Sovereign implies that the presence of the mass relays would lead the sentient species down a predetermined route with regards to weapons and armor technology (both of which are based upon element zero technology for the Citadel races). As Sovereign explains, "By using it relay technology your society develops along the paths we desire." The relays also serve to reduce the amount of time it takes for galactic civilization to advance, thus shortening the time between the Reapers' harvests. Once the sentient races have established themselves on the Citadel with the aid of the keepers, a lone Reaper vanguard stationed within the galaxy sends a signal to the Citadel, instructing the keepers to activate the station’s hidden mass relay. This opens a path between the Citadel and dark space. The Reapers then flood through, killing the leaders of the assembled species before branching out and harvesting all space-faring life around them. Because the Reapers first enter the galaxy at the point that they have ensured will be the center of galactic politics, information and finance, they are able to cripple any resistance almost before the Citadel civilizations have any idea that they are under attack. The Citadel also gives them control of the relay network, cutting off star systems from each other and destroying communications. The Reapers then use their control of the Citadel and its data to begin the most sinister phase of their attack. Records allow them to track down every settled planet and attack them, harvesting their populations or enslaving them through indoctrination. Once they have harvested the galaxy, the Reapers wipe every trace of their existence from record and retreat back into dark space. The only known times the cycle has failed or been halted where in the Prothean-Reaper War, when the combined might of the galaxy managed to halt the agression for a time in about 200,000 B.C., which resulted in the founding of the Ecumene, and in the Reaper War, when the Catalyst and Commander Shepard decided upon a solution. Harvesting During their invasion at the end of each cycle, the Reapers gather and "process" vast numbers of individuals from each of the galaxy's sentient space-faring races. Victims who cooperate with or are captured by Reaper husks are rounded up into "camps", where the husks select individuals deemed fit for processing; it is believed that the husks use scent or chemical receptors to analyze the genetic composition of victims. Those who are deemed unsuitable are turned into more husks. Individuals who are determined to be suitable for processing are loaded onto Reaper Processors, where they are ushered into single-person pods. Like a slaughterhouse, the interior of the Processor is designed to prevent any visual or auditory contact between individuals being processed. Once in the pods, the victims are dissolved into a raw genetic "paste" for ease of transport. This paste will then be used in the construction of a newborn Reaper, with the victims' minds being preserved to form the Reaper's gestalt consciousness. The only known facilities used for Reaper construction are located on the Citadel and within the Collector Base in the galactic core. Available information suggests that a single race is harvested during each cycle to produce Reaper Capital Ships; it appears that other space-faring races harvested during the cycle are used to produce Destroyer-class Reapers. Exactly how or why this distinction is made is unknown. The rate of killing during a harvest is staggering - during the invasion of Earth, at least 400 Processors were present, and the number of humans processed each day was estimated at 1.86 million. At such a rate, the entire planet would be depopulated in a decade. As a "back up" option, the Reapers are capable of using the Collectors - a slave race genetically engineered from the Protheans and other Ecumene races - to gather genetic material in their stead. The Reapers are only known to have used this option once, when they used the Collectors to conduct mass raids on human colonies as part of a plan to create a human-based Reaper. Notable Reapers *Derelict Reaper *Harbinger *Human-Reaper *Leviathan of Dis *Sovereign Category:Races Category:Non-Citadel races Category:History Category:Milky Way species Category:Milky Way races Category:Synthetic races Category:Artificial intelligence Category:Robots